Test a Jerez, conclusione al top–04/02/2015

Kimi Raikkonen ended the first Formula 1 test of 2015 on top for Ferrari, setting the fastest time of the week at Jerez on Wednesday afternoon.

The 2007 world champion spent most of the day at the top of the times, running on the medium and hard-compound tyres during the morning, before switching to some soft-tyre running late in the afternoon.

Raikkonen reiterated his belief that Ferrari has started 2015 in encouraging shape.

"Compared with the last car it feels at lot better," he said.

"We still have a lot of things to work on and things to improve, but we have something we can work on and the team has done a good job over the winter to prepare and make this car.

"We can be happy about that, but it’s still early days."

It was during a sequence of runs on the yellow-sidewalled Pirellis that Raikkonen set the best time of the four days, going one tenth of a second faster than Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel managed on day two (on mediums).

Sauber once again got itself towards the front as it completed some soft-tyre running for the fourth consecutive day, with Marcus Ericsson edging out Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes for the second-fastest time with half an hour to go.

Ericsson caused a last-minute red flag when his car ran out of fuel on track.

Hamilton succeeded in passing the 100-lap mark for the first time at this test, after a water leak limited him to 91 on day two.

The reigning world champion did not have a perfect day though, as a spin at the chicane brought out the red flags in the morning.

It was only a minor delay to Mercedes’ programme, with Hamilton returning to the track just 40 minutes after he caused the stoppage.

At the other end of the timesheets, Lotus and McLaren both wrapped up the test early due to power unit and fuel pump problems respectively, while Red Bull lost time with an ERS problem earlier in the day that forced Daniil Kvyat to stop on track in the morning.

McLaren had a troubled morning as well, when an "operational issue relating to the oil level" caused a delay to its programme in the morning.

Button finished the day with 35 laps to his name, and he set the Honda-powered MP4-30’s fastest lap of the week with a 1m27.660s.

Kimi Raikkonen: “Over the winter, we have made a good step forward and this car is definitely an improvement over the 2014 one. It’s the whole package that has progressed, but there is still a lot of work to do. We are not comparing ourselves to the others, we just got on with our own job, without looking at what they were doing. Times are of relatively little importance; what matters is that we have put together a good number of laps without having any real problems. Today’s conditions were not that easy, with too strong a wind blowing ontrack, but then it’s the same for everyone. As I said, we now have a good basis from which to start the development work.”

James Allison: “When you bring a new car to the track, you’re always excited and worried and that is mixed with a profound hope that all the hard work of so many people will be rewarded with performance. We leave this test without having all our expectations met, simply because we would have liked to have done even more mileage and because you always want to be faster. However, having said that, given how it went, overall we can bepleased, because we have had a solid start. Now, we are keen to push on with the development work in Barcelona, so as to be ready for the first race in Melbourne.”

Maurizio Arrivabene: “If one makes a comparison to last year, these past few days of testing have produced encouraging signs. The team has worked well, both at home and at the track and our drivers did a great job, providing the engineers with valuable feedback. But above all, I am pleased that the group has rediscovered its motivation and team spirit. In terms of performance, I don’t think our competitors – one in particular – have shown their true potential over these past days. I think we will only discover the truth about them and about ourselves at the last Barcelona test session. Now, my attention turns to Paris, where tomorrow’s meeting will decide the future of our sport.”